Electives In Nepal

On this clinically-focused placement in Pokhara, you’ll see communicable diseases like diphtheria, TB, and typhoid. Bites from tropical insects and snakes are common too. You can rotate through familiar departments like surgery, OBG, paediatrics and orthopaedics, but because the country’s healthcare system has such limited resources, practices and treatments will differ from what you’re used to. In the obstetric theatre in the OBG department, nursing students can observe procedures like, myomectomies, laparotomies and hysterectomies. You can also get experience in other niche areas like neonatal intensive care or even leprosy rehabilitation.

In Pokhara, you can see communicable diseases including diphtheria, TB, and typhoid. In general medicine, you can learn from a team of consultants specialised in heart disease, GI systems, kidneys, joints, immune and endocrine disorders…. The list goes on. There is also a clinic for pulmonary and diabetic patients in which you can gain experience. Time in the OBG theatre allows you to see how local surgeons approach myomectomies, laparotomies and hysterectomies. Beyond all of the above, you can gain insight into much less familiar areas like leprosy rehabilitation, obscure skin conditions, rheumatic fever, and worm infestations.

You’ll get amazing experience in the maternity ward if you do your midwifery elective here. You can split your time across the 'First Stage Room' ( the observation room), a 6-bed delivery room, a neonatal unit, and a postnatal, preeclampsia and eclampsia unit. The delivery room gets busy — it can see up to 30 births a day. Most births are straightforward, but there’s every chance that you’ll see breech births, malpresentation, and birth asphyxia. The hospital runs an antenatal clinic too, and that sees hundreds of women a week. These numbers are thanks to the government's Safe Motherhood Programme that encourages pregnant women to use hospitals more.

Do a physiotherapy placement in Pokhara and you’ll see a huge range of cases. Strokes, degenerative disorders, soft tissue injuries, neuromuscular disorders, musculoskeletal conditions, spinal cord injuries, post-amputation rehabilitation, pain management, and delayed developmental milestones to name a few. You can get experience in the inpatient and outpatient departments.

On your paramedic science elective in Nepal, you will see some major differences when compared with back home. A lack of patient privacy, extremely limited infection control and how doctors take patients’ socioeconomic circumstances into account when making a diagnosis. If a patient you’re assisting with goes to theatre, you can follow and observe. The hospital only uses ambulances in serious emergency situations. For example, if a patient needs life support while being transported, during critical labour, or in the event of mass casualties.

It might surprise you to see that even though it’s under-resourced, our partner hospital’s radiography department can perform a huge range of diagnostic imaging. This includes MR angiography, venography, spectroscopy, sinography, tractography, SWI, Fistulography, fluid flow quantification, and MR mammography. Of course, the department offers X-rays too. While there is a lot of equipment, most of it is dated. Unlike in the UK where we have 64-slice CT scanners, the CT machine in our partner hospital is only capable of 4 slices. As there is only one CT scanner, when it breaks, patients simply can’t get scans until it’s fixed.

There are two main dispensaries here. One services inpatients, the other services outpatient prescriptions. You’ll help dispense medicines, shadow doctors to gain insight into patients’ medication plans. If you’re interested in pharmacovigilance, you can spend some time in the dedicated unit to see how local specialists detect, assess, and prevent side effects of the drugs they prescribe. You can even shadow doctors on ward rounds to find out how they build patient treatment plans.

In Pokhara, you get to see how local dentists tackle things like gum disease, maxillofacial trauma, and cleft lip and palate repair, even when resources are at the minimum. You’ll be in a busy dentistry department and get experience with procedures like fillings, root canals, and scaling. You can also see how things are done over in dental radiology, with X-ray machines used to image and diagnose a huge range of oral conditions. The department has an orthodontist and an endodontist, so you could get some experience with procedures like brace fittings and root canal treatment.